Bhubaneswar, Dec. 1: The House committee of the Assembly on railway, headed by Speaker Pradeep Amat, today met Union railway minister Dinesh Trivedi and urged him to allocate Rs 2,345 crore to take up expansion of the railway network in Odisha.

The Sambalpur-Berhampur railway line will not only be economically viable but will improve the connectivity in the region and open port options for industrial development. This will also give good connectivity from western orissa districts to south India but our MLAs are mum on this. It seems they think that no train passing through orissa should bypass Bhubaneswar under any circumstance, or, why these people are silent on the demand for running the Rajdhani express via Jharsuguda for 2/3 days in a week?